4 OPINION *age 4 Wednesday, April 9, 1986 The Michigan Daily 4 Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Senderos terrorize Peru Vol. XCVI, No. 129 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. A2 schools mis-address AIDS T HE ANN ARBOR school board is forming policy on the atten- dance of students with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and the permissability of having teachers with the disease in the classroom. Neither students nor teachers with the disease should be banned from school. People outside the three high risk groups (homosexual or bisexual men, intravenous drug 'users, and hemophiliacs) are generally not at risk of contracting the disease. Though it is wise to be prudent, the chance of anyone con- tracting AIDS in the classroom is null, as no intimate contact is allowed. The largest problem with AIDS is public hysteria, in spite of repeated assurances from epidemiology experts that the disease is not communicable ex- cept through sexual contact, blood transfusion, or direct contact with open wounds, or possible mucous membranes. Having AIDS infected people in school will help to educate the public on the disease and the problems its sufferers have. The better AIDS and the needs of its victims are understood, the easier the time will be before a cure is found. Instead of ostracizing the unfortunate children who have AIDS, citizens should support AIDS victims and increase awareness about AIDS - a key step to reducing the spread of the disease. By Roberto Javier Frisancho On April 14, 1985, the people of Peru went to the polls and elected Alan Garcia Perez their new President. It was a considerable achievement and demonstrated stron popular support for the electoral process. Because, for the first time since 1912, one freely elected president handed over power to another. Yet Peru's democracy still remains threatened. Since 1980, when Peru's armed forces stepped down after 12 years in power, eight other countries in Latin America - in- cluding Brazil and Argentina - have swit- ched from military to civilian rule. Peru, like these other countries, is in an economic crisis, but it also faces a threat that most of these countries don't have to deal with. This threat is posed by the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a mysterious, fanatical terrorist group determined to destroy the country's existing social struc- ture even at the cost of millions of lives. However, the large turnout for the elec- tion - 92 percent of the electorate - has meant an impressive defeat for the Sen- deros, which had proclaimed an election boycott. With conservative parties crushed, 49 percent of the vote* went to Garcia's left-of- center ticket, the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) party and a further 23 percent to Alfonso Barrantes Lingan, the Marxist candidate of the United Left coalition. *(The constitution required Garcia to have 50 percent of the votes, but Barrantes decided to concede the election). So intractable is the guerilla problem that it was not a campaign issue. None of the can- didates, including the United Left's Barran- tes, had anything but condemnation for the Shining Path. During the 15 weeks between the elections and inauguration day on July 28, Peru's lef- tist guerillas laid down their challenge to the new Government. Lima, the capital of Peru, was blacked out in an effort to disrupt vote-counting, and the head of the election board, Domingo Garcia Rada, was wounded in an assassination attempt. On June 7, 1985, while outgoing President Fernando Belaunde 'Terry was host at a state dinner for Argentina's President, Raul Alfonsin, the guerrillas sent a warning to heads of state planning to attend the inauguration. Lima was blacked out again, a car bomb exploded ouside the presidential palace and arsonists lit a fire in a store across the main plaza. The movement has adopted harsh and Frisancho is a freshman in the College of Engineering. unorthodox tactics, arming its followers with sticks of dynamite, slings and machetes, and stirring ancient rivalries between Indian communities in order to ex- tend its influence. Informers, municipal authorities and, not infrequently, those who refuse to be recruited are brutally mur- dered. In Lima and other cities, the Sen- deros prefer attention-grabbing actions, such as hanging dead dogs on lamp posts or lighting a fire in the shape of the hammer- and-sickle on a hillside. The guerrillas have not actively sought a broad base of popular support nor will they ever receive any. Based on the movement's sporadic propaganda, its military operations, what is known of its origins, and interviews with jailed guerillas, it appears the Sendero Luminoso draws it special brand of nihilism from a fanatic dedication to Maoist fundamentalism. The group has spurned Peru's established Marxist parties, and seems intent not so much on over- throwing the government as on gradually destroying the society it represents. Guerrillas literally support China's Gang of Four and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge (who saughtered roughly three million Kam- pucheans during the 1970's) as models. (New Republic, Jan. 1985) The Peruvian Army has unfortunately been forced to use harsh tactics in order to combat the guerillas. This has inevitably lead to some tragedies. But the army's brute force has been surpassed by atrocities committed by the guerrillas themselves. Deriving their communist ideology from the teachings of Mao Tse-tung, the Senderos are led by Abimael Guzman (nom de guerre, Col. Gonzalo), a hermit-like former professor of philosophy. He has been underground since 1980, the year the Senderos began their campaign by systematically killing village officals, often slitting their throats in front of family members. Their use of terror, in- cluded deployment of child guerrillas as executioners. Ironically, it was the government's at- tempt in 1960 to atone for its chronic neglect of the Andes Mountains region, where most of the Quechua-speaking (the language of the Incas) Indian peasants live, that planted the seed of Sendero Luminoso. Hoping to make the University of Huamanga in Ayacucho City a model of higher education in the provinces, the government provided some of Peru's brightest young academics with handsome salaries to accept teaching positons there. Among those answering the call was Guzman. Over the next decade, he and a coterie of students combined an- thropological study of the region with an in- tense devotion to Mao and the writings of the late Peruvian Marxist Jose Carlos Mariategui. It was from Mariategui that they appropriated the term "Sendero Luminoso," and eventually founded a splin- ter Communist Party in his name. By the late 1970's, both the party membership (con- sisting mostly of students) and their leader - who is now revered by his followers no less than Mao, Marx, and Lenin - went un- derground. Sendero Luminoso resurfaced as a guerrilla movement shortly after the national elections in 1980. They have been killing every since. One such instance is what happened in April, 1984, when at least seventy-seven men, women,'and children were killed in the town of Lucanamarca, in what surviviors described as a peasant raid led by a small group of armed guerrillas. These type of massacres have unfortunately lead to in- stances where the Army in its searches has accidently killed innocent peasants, which human rights organizations like Amnesty International have rightfully criticized. But they have failed to realize the unusual cir- cumstances that caused these tragedies and have been duped into being used as a propaganda weapon by the Senderos into justifying their terrorist activities. In addition, all this wrong condemnation of the Peruvian government overshadows the punishments that military has been receiving for its abuse of its powers and weakens the support of government in the international community. For example, in February, 1984, the district attorney for Ayacucho, Jorge Zegarra, ordered the arraignment of twenty-six members of the counterinsurgency police for the murder of thirty-one peasants. Also, in a toughening up of government policy, President Garcia fired three senior generals, in late Sep- tember, 1985, for covering up the deaths of 69 Indians in the Ayacucho guerrilla war zone, and six other officers were jailed for playing a direct role. Finally, the Peruvian government has beer trying to negotiate with the Senderos, but they seem determined in the total destruc- tion of Peru. In June, 1984, the Peruvian government's offer to recall the military from Ayacucho in return for a truce was an- swered with a bloody guerrilla offensive all along the Central Andes. It is quite ironic that the Senderos were here twice this school year on a U.S. tour, with help from "The Committee to Support The Revolution ini Peru," for a fundraiser; (selling such manuals as "Develop Guerrilla. Warfare") and not met with any protests whatsoever. (Drug trafficking is another source of their income). One would have at least condemned them. But, it seems that if a faction is left-wing oriented, it does not have to worry about such harassements. It must be understood that these barbarians. will not accept democracy at all, just total power, and the only way to stop them is to kill or capture them. By all definitions possible, these savages are real terrorists and should be banned from this campus. Free speech i"n shopping malls T HE NEW YORK Supreme Court recently decided shop- ping mall owners must give iheir consent to any petitions cir- 'eulated on their premises. This 'decision is dangerous because "malls have replaced the Main Streets of our country as com- rnuiity gathering places; therefore, they should retain the 'political freedoms practiced on the streets. The decision, however, :designates an arbitrary elite, namely shopping mall owners, to control a facet of American political expression. As businessmen, they are interested in providing hassle-free shopping; :as big business, they are interested Cam is con g THE CAMPBELL Soup Com- pany has finally succumbed to the demands of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), ending a seven-year boycott of the eompany's products. 4 FLOC works toward securing a collective bargaining agreements between the Campbell's Soup Company, and the migrant farm workers in the Midwest. FLOC initiated the boycott to protest the inadequate working conditions of these farmworkers, and to force the company to accept the workers' rights to unionize, among others. The boycott is presently suspen- ded, but FLOC warns that it could be reinstated if Campbell's does not honor the collective bargaining agreement. Despite this con- tingency, it is important to recognize the significance of any in not allowing certain viewpoints to petition. While some claim this is an issue of property rights, the issue of free speech takes priority.The New York decision plus similar decisions by the Connecticut, Michigan, and U.S. Supreme Courts interpret, freedom of speech and assembly as applying to speech in- fringements by the government, not by property owners. Con- sidering the immense popularity of malls today and the huge numbers of people who go to them, it is im- portant that the guarantees of free speech, not the mall owner, dic- tates who may circulate petitions there. Chassy 1 SEND A PREPPY TEXAN TO TALK OZL V/ZIh AFA5I.. pbell's quered determination and vision of many concerned individuals. Boycotts, particularly, are only effective if the public can persevere and main- tain consistent, economic pressure over long periods of time. Recognizing its economic weakness as a solitary organization, FLOC wisely chose to call on other groups sympathetic to its cause, to join the boycott. Ac- cording to Agenda: "Ann Arbor's Alternative Newsmonthly," vic- tory for FLOC came three days before the National Council of Churches, which represents 40 million potential consumers, was to announce endorsement of the boycott of Campbell's. Those that supported the fair treatment of farm workers by par- ticipating in the boycott should be commended for their patience and committment. This victory should nnrv n rl n a r fn n rP^"4X11.+1%^c,^ S NIFF $NIPFIU.IIQN XhOE~ I PRC SE IS UR AN ICKYTMING.WI V/U E ThEIL U,vAPEfl ~THNZ FOF T'E KLIEINE rII 0 TEARS - 9b c~isKut op LETTERS: Re ferences to Sandinistas are biased To the Daily: Could you please refrain from inserting an adjective before the words "Sandinista government" communist party or movement. Nor is Marxism or communism an official ideology of the present government of Nicaragua, in x-in th C nr :iicfo cv..hn perialist United States gover- nment," I don't think you'd print it, even though both of these ac- cusations have some basis in r_. dinista leadership, party mem- hers, or the people who voted them into office. Please try to keep these opinions on the